Love and Lightning
by YogaForever
Summary: Sonic leaned into them, wrapping them up in his arms and kissing them again. He knew this was love. Love in its very truest form. *Challenge/One-Shot*


**Love** and Lightning

_By: Sweet Valentine Vampire _

The air was still and the crickets were quiet tonight, as she leaned on the windowsill contemplating the stars above her. She stared into the fiery lights, wistful as she usually was on nights like this. Nights when the world refused to leave them be. When the world decided it needed saving, and naturally he was the favorite, and thus he was chosen to do the saving. She never asked for this life.

But, then again, she never declined it, either.

She just wished she didn't have to deal with it. Was it really her problem? So what if cities burned? Who cared if hundreds, or thousands died? He was hers now, no longer the world's only savior. The world didn't deserve him and he didn't deserve her.

Was she really so selfish? She'd let others die only so she could treasure her hours with him? Well, no. Mostly she was jealous she couldn't be there beside him. Like a hundred forever's ago . . . She wanted to be beside him. He promised her.

"_I don't wanna just protect you. I'll defend you, and I'll honor you, but we've gotta protect each other. Let's face the world together, okay? I'll be with you as long as you'll have me, because I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. Amy Rose, I promise to be as best a husband as I can be." _

Some wedding vow. Really, she adored his awkward words and his accidentally sweet way of saying things. He was painfully shy and outrageously outgoing all at once. Never would he shy from a fight, always would he flush red upon holding her hand where others could see.

But, that was years ago. Now . . .

Now there was Aleena in her crib in the other room. Now there was a kitchen where she cooked, and sometimes he helped her cook. Now he had to keep a real-life job to feed Aleena, and oh how he complained. He hated working. In his eyes, it was worth it though, and he refused to take all of Station Square's free this or that's. He wanted to be self-sufficient.

That was just his way.

Another sigh escaped her lips as she waited by the window in their daughter's bedroom. Anytime he was pulled away this late, he'd always enter through Aleena's window, as she had witnessed from her hiding place behind a wall, watching him in his tender moment one time out of many.

He came in through Aleena's window, causing the soft pink curtains to flutter. He'd shut the window and cover glass with curtain and he'd tip-toe quietly across the room. First, he would touch Aleena's head and look at her with this gleam in his eye, a sort of shine he only acquired when beholding the beautiful baby girl.

After watching her, he'd lean down and kiss her goodnight, whispering something against her snow white skin, flawless from lack of aging. Then, he'd lean away and creep silently out of the room, leaving Aleena's door open to quickly come to his baby's side if she should even whimper in the night.

She thought her husband would spoil the girl rotten, but as an attentive, loving mother, she couldn't blame him for adoring the child - not when she was the same way.

Always, always, always, would she wish she had a father. She hoped Aleena's dad would stay healthy and alive for all of the little girl's years growing up with her mother. The battles against Robotnik worried her, and she couldn't join him, because someone had to tend to Aleena.

Tonight, she wanted to see her husband first as he descended from the hill little ways away. As he turned the grass up. As the crickets all sang a celebrating symphony for him.

But, the crickets were silent and the air was still. She thought it would rain because the clouds were beginning to block the stars, and the air smelled moist.

When she began nodding off, it was only the sudden splash of rain on her head that brought her back to the waking world. Lightning flashed, and her eyes widened, watching the jagged sky-light race down to the earth and crush a tree with a massive boom.

Aleena screeched from her crib and Amy, a caring mother, raced to shut the window and hopefully muffle the noise and quell the water spilling from the sky and into the bedroom. Poor Sonic, she thought in that moment, he'd have no way to get inside. He was out in the rain and the world was demanding another saving.

"It's okay, baby, it's only a little storm." Amy cooed at the child, holding her. "It's all right."

It was to no avail, Aleena wouldn't stop wailing for a second.

"It's just a bit of rain," Amy stroked Aleena's soft baby quills, bouncing the girl in her arms. When Aleena wouldn't stop screaming, Amy wondered if it was because Aleena knew her father was still out there -in the rain, in the fight- and she wanted Sonic to kiss her goodnight.

Thunder boomed outside, and even Amy flinched. Aleena fell silent a second, and Amy marveled that maybe -just maybe- the child decided that the storm wasn't so bad. Heck, it was kind of exciting! Then, the baby's face crumpled up til it was all wrinkled and red and she started screaming and crying all over again.

Lightning flashed. It lit up the whole room with its eerie blue glow. Amy blinked, watching the window and seeing the jagged lines of white tear through clouds in their malevolent journey to the ground. As if they were chalk lines on a black board smudged away by an uncaring hand, the lightning dropped out of sight.

And thunder took its presence.

The thunder seemed to throttle the whole world, and Amy for a second thought she was shaking too. Aleena's cries were silent compared to that shock of thunder.

The room fell quiet, with Aleena too scared to make noise. She clung to her mother's shirt, whimpering and sniffling.

When would Sonic get home?

* * * * *

Racing and dashing through the trees that made up that tiny forestry surrounding his lake house, Sonic found himself constantly losing energy. Dim light breached all openings in the trees, and Sonic was caught in splotches of light from a rising sun somewhere far away. When the trees broke into the clearing that housed a lake and a small house no paparazzi could ever find, Sonic moaned from exhaustion.

At least his side had stopped bleeding. At least his swollen-shut eye had finally stopped throbbing.

He felt numb.

Standing there, looking over the lake that turned a brilliant fuchsia from the breaking dawn's light and the wet grass and flower garden that Cream had planted for them, Sonic ached to be near his family again.

How strange it was, he pondered as he forced one leg in front of the other, that he had a family again. He remembered his old family. The family he'd had on Christmas Island long before he ever knew who Robotnik was. He remembered normal things like doing homework and eating together and playing games and quarreling with his brother and sister.

He also remembered the miserable loneliness that came with their death. He remembered swearing off friends and family, just because he was too hurt to be hurt again.

He remembered meeting Tails, a child much like him (who'd lost everything) and he perfectly remembered meeting Knuckles and Amy Rose.

Amy Rose.

Would he ever stop denying himself each time he thought, 'my wife?'

Tails had teased in good nature that Amy had Sonic whipped, finally, after all these years. He was on a leash, now. But, was that true? It wasn't a leash, though he was bound to her. It was like that old folktale. He'd been tied to Amy by a red string of fate. They'd been tied together for years. They were bound together forever, whether or not they liked it.

Aleena was proof Sonic liked it.

This somewhat immature thought made him chuckle amongst himself.

The house was yards away and the first thing he noticed was that his baby's window was closed. Considering the storm last night, it made sense. It was just odd. To do things differently.

Entering through the front door, using the key beneath the flower pot on the porch, Sonic took in the smell of home. Took in the sight of the disarrayed living room and the forgotten dishes in the sink. Yeah, it was his turn to do the dishes.

But, duty called and he answered.

He rinsed his face in the kitchen sink and discarded his battle-torn and bloodied clothes in the hamper in the hallway. He threw on clean clothes from the drier, thanking his wife silently for thinking to do the laundry at all.

Creeping up the stairs and wincing as every pain rocketed back at him, Sonic smiled. He went to Aleena's doorway, but the open crib said the girl could no longer be found here. This puzzled him, but he moved on. Going into the room he shared with Amy Rose, he found his wife in bed with Aleena nuzzled against her.

Sonic smiled a gentle smile. One he only showed Amy. One he used to kiss Aleena goodnight.

One he used to kiss his favorite girls good morning. Aleena smiled in her sleep, like she always did when he kissed her and Amy stirred only slightly. Sonic leaned into them, wrapping them up in his arms and kissing them again.

He knew this was love. Love in its very truest form.

* * * * *

Aleena opened her glassy-from-tears eyes. Mom lay behind her and Daddy had kissed her. Daddy's eye looked funny, but Aleena didn't care. She didn't care so much she smiled and knew Daddy thought she was asleep, not seeing her slit-open eyes beneath her mother's long eyelashes. She cuddled deeper into the warmth of her parents.

* * * * *

This is how they stayed for a few hours.

When they woke up, Amy squealed like she was twelve again, Aleena laughed and Sonic kissed them both. Again.

_Fin._

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A/N: This was written as a part of a challenge my friend Matt is having me do. The challenge is to write 100 one-shots, each one according to an allotted theme. The theme for this is 'Love.' I think it could've been better, but it could've been worse. Wanna tell me what you thought? Then, do review. I thank you for it, I assure you.

Lates Mates,

Sweet Valentine Vampire


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